Updates to the Microsoft Certified Master for SQL Server 2008 Program

Used to recognize and certify the top SQL Server talent in the world, Microsoft’s most advanced SQL Server certification is now more accessible than ever
Microsoft has made significant changes to the Microsoft Certified Master (MCM) program for SQL Server 2008, and these changes present a great opportunity for Partners to equip their technical staff with top tier SQL Server certification.

The SQL MCM program formerly required three weeks of training at Microsoft – a fact that put the certification out of the reach of many SQL Server experts worldwide, because of the time, travel and expense involved in achieving the certification. By eliminating the mandatory training requirement, plus consolidating the required exams into one knowledge exam (available now) and one lab exam (available soon) Microsoft can provide highly experienced SQL Server IT professionals worldwide with validation of their deep technical expertise, no matter their learning style and economic means.  With online exam prep materials, and exams available through select Prometric Testing centers worldwide, MCM for SQL Server 2008 is now within reach of more SQL Server professionals globally, while maintaining the integrity and value of this advanced certification.

Now more than ever, it’s a great time for Partners to sponsor their qualified SQL Server professionals to pursue MCM for SQL Server 2008.  Having MCMs on your staff sets you apart from your competition, and tells your customers that you can meet their most complex business requirements.  In fact, evidence has shown that customers have engaged with Partners based primarily on the fact that they have MCMs on their team. An investment in your employees is an investment in your company’s future, and can make for higher quality SQL Server deployments in mission critical environments. Find out more, and start making this investment today.

Resources:

      SQL Server MCM Program (program rules and details)  
      How do you know if you’re ready for SQL MCM? (Blog post)
      SQL MCM 2008 Readiness Videos  (for the full list of videos – click the “More” link at the bottom of the page)
      SQL MCM Question forum (Questions about the program from other SQL professionals)   
      Prometric Exam Locations for SQL MCM (Current approved Knowledge Exam centers, and location of information once the Lab Exam is available)

SqlServer 2008 Performance Optimization Training

This 2 day seminar covers best of the best concepts and practices from popular courses offered by Solid Quality Mentors. Theoretically any one can go through the technical stuff and learn their own. The seminar focuses completely on providing real world experience by using practical demos and scenarios derived from customer engagements. The seminar is uniquely structured. Sessions are discussion based and designed to be an interactive between instructor and participants for an optimal learning experience.

Target audience

This seminar is intended for following audiences:

• SQL Developers – Professionals responsible for writing optimal SQL Query
• SQL DBA – Professionals responsible for performance of the server
• Programmers – Any language programmer who deals with SQL Server

Yes. It is happening in major cities in India and all over the world . do not miss the opportunity.

Agenda

Day 1: Performance T-SQL with Solid Foundation

• Don’t Lie to Me. O Liar!  – Resolutions to Popular Misconceptions

There are plenty of myths regarding SQL Server features, some of them were true at times and others were pure imaginations. This Myth Buster session will talk about myths and will bust them – Scientifically!

• 5 Point Subquery – The Unknown Tricks and Tips of Subqueries

The age old topic of Subquery is in fact never old. Subqueries are most confusing to people who claim to know them well. This session talks about unknown tricks and tips that only advanced users would know. Learning them is like doing 6 digit multiplications without using paper or calculators.

• Your Joins, My joins, Our Joins – The Relation between External and Internal Joins

The SQL Server Engine looks at the Join very differently from how we look at it. We think that there are Cross Join, Inner Join and Outer Join. SQL Server Engine thinks there are Loop Join, Merge Join and Hash Join. Learn where and how the bridge is completed.

• 3 ‘Real’ Idiots of SQL – Triggers, Views and …!

Triggers and Views are very cool advanced features. When they get in the hands of the ‘not so smart’ developers, they have the potential of transforming into weapons of mass destructions. The reality of Trigger and Views are revealed here in this session. Hopefully, it will convince you to not use them in future coding.

• SolidQ Quiz Hour – One Contestant (Instructor) and Multiple Quiz Masters (All of You)

Here is your chance to ask your questions to the instructor which are so far not covered in any of the sessions. You can ask as many questions as you like as well bring your real world problems. The instructor will guide you towards attaining resolutions to your problems.

Day 2: Performance Tuning T-SQL with Solid Advanced Technique

• The Good, The Bad and The Ugly Side of Index – Evils of Index and Workarounds

The myth about Index is that it improves performance. The even bigger myth about Index is that it reduces performance. The reality is confusing and developers are lost trying to balance the performance of various queries involving multiple tables. In this session, learn what you should not do with Indexes. Once you master the wisdom of where and how to create them, the mystery of Indexes will be solved.

• Blood veins and Heartbeats! – The Intelligence of Statistics

This session is the soul of these two days of training. The mystery of SQL Server Engine will be opened wide in front of us. We will go over each and every detail which leads engine to give optimal performance to the query. We will also answer few important questions about statistics and its optimal settings.

• Sniffing Parameters is Injurious to Health! – Optimize Your Query for Unknown Values

Ever wondered why recompiling your query works faster? Ever wondered why restarting SQL Server Services improves the performance. Ever wondered how distribution of the data changes the cache plan. Here is your chance to learn the same and optimize any query for any of the unknown variable.

• Fast, Faster and The Fastest! – Turbo Fast Queries Techniques

This is the grand finale of two days. We will take a query which is already running in zero (0) millisecond and optimize it further by three levels. Each level will be more difficult than others and the end result will be stunning. This unique session will teach you interesting lessons at each level of optimization and will run the query faster than its original seep of zero (0) millisecond.

• SolidQ Quiz Hour – One Contestant (Instructor) and Multiple Quiz Masters (All of You)

This session will cover up any loose ends of the two days seminar. The best participant will also get a unique gift from the instructor.

To join the seminars drop an email to the following address. Himabvejella@gmail.com and IndiaInfo “at” SolidQ.com. If you specify MUGH in Title, you will avail special discount in overall rates on specified price. Yes, a more than 20% by using MUGH I promise. If you register using MUGH you will be eligible to win MS Freesoftwares, MSDN VS2010 license  and windows7 Ultimate DVD .

Current Schedule

• Chennai, India: Sep 24-25, 2010
• Colombo, Sri Lanka: Oct 4-5, 2010
• TBD, USA: Nov 15-16, 2010
• TBD, USA: Nov 17-18, 2010
• Hyderabad, India: Nov 27-28, 2010
• Pune, India: Dec 4-5, 2010

Complete Information in http://www.solidq.in/Training/DirectionsSeminar.aspx

If you have any questions please feel free to contact me . Please note that the lunch and snacks for the 2 days will be provided.
The Venue
Western Amrutha Castle, 5-9-16, Opp. Secretriat, Saifabad, Khairatabad, Hyderabad.
Hurry up the seats are limited only.

Training in Hyderabad for SQL Server 2008 and SharePoint 2010

Solid Quality Mentors,India Launches Public Training in Hyderabad for SQL Server 2008 and SharePoint 2010. Join Microsoft MVPs Pinal Dave of SQL Authority.com and Joy Rathnayake for the real-world information you need to get the most from your SQL Server and SharePoint implementations.

Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008 Query Optimization & Performance Tuning (Pinal Dave—May 12-14, 2010)
This intensive, 3-day course gives attendees an in-depth look at query optimization and performance tuning in SQL Server 2005 and 2008. Designed to prepare SQL Server developers and administrators for a transition to SQL Server 2005 or 2008, the course covers best practices for a variety of essential tasks for maximizing performance.

SharePoint 2010 (Joy Rathnayake—May 10-11, 2010)
This comprehensive 2-day workshop—featuring five hands-on labs—begins with an overview of the Microsoft SharePoint 2010 environment and its underlying components. Day 1 focuses on SharePoint for the ITPro, showing you how to create and extend SharePoint Web Applications, work with content databases, manage authentication, manage sites, and much more. Day 2, focusing on development on the SharePoint Server 2010 platform, discusses the various solutions and code modules that developers can use to enhance SharePoint’s out-of-the-box functionality.

The fee for the SQL course is INR 14,000/person for the whole 3-day convention.AND INR 11,000/person for SharePoint 2010. At the rate of 1 USD = 44 INR, this fee converts to less than USD 300. At this rate, it is totally possible to fly from anywhere from the world to India and take the training and still save handsome pocket money. It would be even better if you register using the discount code “MUGH“, for you will instantly get an INR 3000 discount, reducing the total cost of the training to INR 11,000/person for whole 3 days course, INR 8000 per person for whole 2days course. This is a onetime offer and will not be available in the future. This offer is exclusively for the MUGH members only.
Fees & Registration
SQL Server 2005/2008 Query Optimization &Perf Tuning: Rs. 14,000
per participant
Day 1: Strengthening the Basics & SQL Server 2005/2008 Features
• Subqueries, Ranking Functions, Joins, and Set Operations
• Table Expressions
• TOP and APPLY
• SQL Server 2008 Enhancements

Day 2: Query Optimization & Performance Tuning, Part 1
• Logical Query Processing
• Query Tuning
• Introduction to the Query Processor
• Common Query-Coding Practices that Cause Poor Performance

Day 3: Query Optimization & Performance Tuning, Part 2
• SQL Server Indexing and Index Maintenance
• Plan Guides, Query Hints, UDFs, and Computed Columns
• SQL Server Execution Plans
• Real-World Index & Optimization Tips

SharePoint 2010: Rs. 11,000
per participant

Day 1: SharePoint 2010 Introduction and ITPro Overview
• SharePoint 2010 Introduction and New Features
• Working with SharePoint Web Applications and Sites
• Hands-on Lab: Creating a New Web Application, Site Collections, Configuring Navigation, and More
• Understanding and Configuring Workflow Services, Search, and Disaster Recovery
• Hands-on Lab: Out-of-the Box Workflows, Search & Indexing, and Backup & Restore
• Understanding SharePoint Designer 2010
• Hands-on Lab: Lists and Libraries, External Content Types, and Workflow Designer

Day 2: SharePoint 2010 Developer Overview
• Overview of SharePoint Development
• Developing Web Parts
• Hands-on Lab: Developing a Web Part using LINQ to SharePoint
• Understanding Business Connectivity Services (BCS)
• Hands-on Lab: Creating an External Content Type and Retrieving Data from SQL through BCS

• Comprehensive hands-on training
• 1:1 computers
• A/C class rooms with LCD projector
• Printed course materials
• Lunch and Tea provided

To register, contact:
Solid Quality India Pvt. Ltd.
Mangesh Pawar

Phone: (O) 022-4090-7376 | (M) 95940-43399 | (F) 022-4090-7379
MPawar@SolidQ.com or IndiaInfo@SolidQ.com

Please note that there is service tax of 10.2% for each participant fee

The Venue
Timings 10am-6pm
Training Center
Abridge Solutions, #90/B/C/3/1,
Ganesh GHR & MSY Plaza,
Vittalrao Nagar,
Near Image Hospital,
Madhapur, Hyderabad – 500 081.

Some of the feedback
“With his real-world experience in query tuning, Pinal uncovered some T-SQL query tuning myths that were very important and effective to know… With his excellent demos, he proved most of the tips to improve query performance were wrong. Thanks!”

“Pinal has extensive knowledge in his teaching materials and actual business implementation in real-life environments. The course is very interactive, which is a plus.”

“I was delighted with Joy’s presentation and technical skills.”

“The training was very helpful. The way Joy involved all of us was really commendable… he made it really interesting.”

How is it benificial for MUGH Members
Note: The participants who are registered only from MUGH has chance to win Windows 7 DVDs, MCTS Vouchers, T-Shirts and Goodies as free apart from Rs3000 discount per course per person.
This is the high quality training and your amount will be returned if you are not satisfied with the training.I know that SharePoint 2010, SQLServer 2008 is now hot in the market, as the software boom is coming again,this can be good opportunity to learn and update technology for a very reasonable cost.

MUGH February UG Meet

We had UG meet yesterday and 20 turned up out of 58 registrations. As the capacity of the training room is 16, we are happy about the number. Though its working day and announced just before one day, it’s good that you people turned and I am the event organizer who made it happened.



I hope all of you have enjoyed the other side of the indexes session, how to provide simple solutions to ancient problems. I can say it as smart solutions to complex problems. Even I learned how effectively we can apply indexes and optimize query performance.



Select * or Select columns which one faster?

UG Meet action Items:
Blog about what you learned so that others who missed can know about it.
Share the knowledge; it will in turn help you to grow by your self.
When I started blogging, at that time, less writers more readers,now we have more readers and more writers. Be active in the community.
We decided to have UG meet bimonthly.

Thanks to Pinal, the Speaker, though he is busy when I asked him for the Sql Session, he made it happended, Harish Ranganthan for his time for arranging the venue.




I hope you enjoyed my recent series of articles on VS2010. Visual Studio team liked them and I got excellent feedback for these articles. Thanks for all of your support and taking time to read them. Now they are featured on MSDN blog.

This makes me happier and contributes more for the community.
[UPDATE]

Pinal has nice post on this.You can find it here

MUGH Event @Microsoft

Finally we are able to plan for an event in short span of time and we could able to make it.

Hyderabad .NET User Group cordially invite you to the monthly UG Event this Saturday (12 Dec 2009) at Microsoft Office in Jubilee Hills. (Please note that formal registration is required to attend this event. Registration URL is mentioned below)

Two power-packed sessions will be presented by Microsoft MVPs, Amit Bansal & Hima Bindu Vejella.
What is an MVP?
This is a community event and is absolutely free. Session details are as follows:

Session 1: Maximizing Query Optimizer using Query & Table hints
Abstract: Hints are a powerful mechanism to force SQL Server to use alternate query plans. More often than not, the query optimizer does a fantastic job in creating the most optimized query plan for data access, but there may be numerous occasions when you would like to use alternate query plans to boost performance. Hints can help you do that. But beware; Hints if not used correctly may adversely affect performance so it should be used with care. In this session, Amit will first alert the DBAs on using Hints as they need to be sure that there is indeed a problem with the query plan. Then he will show you different types of Hints including Query & Table Hints. The session will be packed with demonstrations. Various concepts on SQL Server query processing architecture will also be explained wherever relevant to ensure that you extract maximum from the session.

Time: 9.30 am to 11 am
Presenter: Amit Bansal

Session 2: VS 2010 and ASP.NET 4.0 Features at a Glance
Abstract: This session gives detail overview of the different versions of ASP.NET Framework along with new .NET Framework 4.0 features and its architecture. A walk through of ASP.NET 4.0 features will be given to the audience. New VS2010 enhancements like Project Templates, Multi Targeting, Web.Config, Code Intellisense and View Call Hierarchy etc came up with new Framework will be explained. After completion of this session audience will come to know New Controls in ASP.Net 4.0 and new features introduced in Asp.NET 4.0.

Time: 11.15 am to 12 .45 pm
Presenter: Hima Bindu Vejella

Date: 12 December 2009, Saturday.

Venue:
Microsoft Corporation (I) Pvt. Ltd.,
4th Floor, Usha Jubilee Town 36,
Plot No.8-2-293/82/A/1130/A,
Road No.36, Jubilee Hills,
Hyderabad 500 033
(near Chutney’s restaurant)

Contact: +91 9618948011 -Harish

Registration URL:
(Please note that formal registration is required to attend this event. Please enter correct email IDs in the registration forms)

We look forward to your participation. Please forward this email to your friends & colleagues to make them aware of the event. Do spread the word by blogging about it and posting it in relevant forums. Your efforts in spreading the word will be highly appreciated.
Limited Seats only. We will close registrations once seats are full
So Hurry up if you are intrested in attending

Thanks & Regards
Hyderabad .NET user group

SqlServer BI Webcast series

SQLServerGeeks.com cordially invites you to SQL Server Business Intelligence webcast series - with 4 webcasts spread over a week. This is an excellent opportunity to get an upstart with BI on SQL Server. The series is very well crafted with 4 webcasts looking into different facets of BI. If you know nothing about BI, do not miss the first webcast: BI for you. The four webcasts are as follows:

Webcast 1: BI for you -November 6, Friday, 3 pm to 4.30 pm
Webcast 2: Create your first cube -November 9, Monday, 3 pm to 4.30 pm
Webcast 3: Extract data from the cube -November 11, Wednesday, 3 pm to 4.30 pm
Webcast 4: Learn MDX scripting -November 13, Friday, 3 pm to 4.30 pm


My Friend Amit Bansal, SQL Server MVP from India, will be delivering the entire series. He is a professional consultant, trainer, speaker & writer on SQL Server (Database Platform & Business Intelligence). He speaks at major summits and conferences of Microsoft worldwide including TechED, MCT Summits, MSDN & TechNet conferences. He has conducted more than 200 workshops on SQL Server & trained more than 3000 IT professionals.

To register, visit

Exclusive session on Windows Server 2008 & SQL Server 2008

Intrested floks may attend the Session on 18th of August at NewDelhi.

Topic 1 : What’s new in Windows Server 2008?

Presenter : Ranjana Jain (Technical Evangelist, Microsoft)

From : 10 am to 11 am


Topic 2 : What’s new in SQL Server 2008?

Presenter : Amit Bansal (Peopleware India, eDominer Systems P Ltd)

From : 11 am to 12 noon

Date : Saturday, 18 August 2007

Time : Registration at 9.30 am. Sessions start sharp at 10.00 am

Venue : Microsoft Corporation, 5th Floor, Eros Corporate Tower, Nehru Place, New Delhi (Adjacent to Satyam Cineplex, Opp. Hotel Intercontinental)

Telephone : 91-11-46502000

What's new in SqlServer 2008

Sign up with PPP and they will pay you $7.50 to write about this post.


Here is a free E-Learning course available for SqlServer 2008(Katmai) for one year subscription. This offer is for limited period only.
If you are technical geek enthusiastic to know more about upcoming version SqlServer 2008 you can subscribe here



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